GIS Analysis of Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity in the Midwest United States

GIS Analysis of Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity in the Midwest United States

Presenter(s)

Surya Margaret Freeman

Description

The objective of this project is to assess the historical trend of agricultural productivity in the Midwest, and examine how it is related to climate change. Climate change can have both positive and negative impacts on agriculture. Some positive impacts of climate change are longer growing seasons, average temperature increase, and higher CO2. On the other hand, some of the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture are extreme frost and heat stress periods, water shortages due to evaporation, and increased severe weather patterns. By analyzing climate data from weather stations around the Midwest United States and spatial agricultural data of two select crops, wheat and corn, we will examine the possible links between climate change and agricultural productivity. The climate data is collected from the National Centers for Environmental Information at NOAA, and the agricultural data comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Our results suggest that climate change have a mixed impact on agricultural productivity in the Midwest United States.

Publication Date

4-5-2017

Project Designation

Capstone Project - Undergraduate

Primary Advisor

Shuang-Ye Wu

Primary Advisor's Department

Geology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

GIS Analysis of Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity in the Midwest United States

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